(SportsNetwork.com) - The Seattle Mariners try to avoid their fifth straight
loss on Saturday when they host the Baltimore Orioles in the third of a four-
game series at Safeco Field.

For the third time in the eight games since the All-Star break, the Mariners
were pushed into extra innings on Friday night and again found themselves on
the losing end, this time in a 2-1 decision. Seattle, which is third in the
American League West standings with a mark of 53-50, has lost five of the last
six.

Charlie Furbush was charged with the loss for the home, team giving up a solo
home run to Chris Davis, as he fell to 1-5 on the campaign. Starting pitcher
Felix Hernandez left after seven innings and one run allowed, issuing five
hits and 10 strikeouts along the way.

Hernandez tied Tom Seaver's major league mark and became just the second
pitcher since 1900 to last at least seven innings and give up two or fewer
runs in 13 consecutive starts.

"It doesn't matter, because we lost," Hernandez said of his accomplishment.
"It's all about the team. It's about winning. "It means a lot for myself, but
I don't care about myself. I just care about the team."

One of the latest additions to the Seattle roster, Kendrys Morales knocked in
his team's lone run after Robinson Cano tripled to right to start off the
bottom of the sixth. Cano, Endy Chavez and Kyle Seager each had three hits in
the meeting.

Baltimore, which is three games up on the New York Yankees for first place in
the AL East thanks to four wins in the last five decisions, registered a total
of six hits. Like Davis, Nelson Cruz went deep for the visitors as well, with
his blast coming into the second innings. Cruz is now second in the majors in
home runs with 29, while his 75 RBI have him fourth in baseball.

Cruz, who appeared in just 109 games for the Texas Rangers last season due to
a suspension for PEDs, now has six straight campaigns with at least 22 home
runs and 75 RBI.

"That was a rocket," Hernandez said of Cruz's home run. "Unbelievable. I
thought that ball was going to hit the wall. I didn't get angry. It was just a
mistake. After that, I just tried to throw good pitches."

Kevin Gausman was the starting pitcher for the O's, but he didn't factor into
the decision after giving up seven hits and a run, while walking three and
striking out as many through 6 2/3 innings. Darren O`Day retired only two
batters, yet that was good enough for his third win of 2014, with Zach Britton
rounding up his 19th save.

The streaking Bud Norris is being called back to the mound by the Orioles this
afternoon. The right-hander has won five of his last six decisions, including
the most recent versus the Los Angeles Angels on Monday.

Norris scattered eight hits, leading to just a single earned run, over 6 2/3
innings, while walking two and fanning eight in posting his eighth victory of
the campaign and dropping his ERA to 3.78 in the process.

Having spent the first five years of his major league career with the Houston
Astros, it should come as little surprise that this is just the fourth career
outing for Norris versus the Mariners, against whom he has a record of 1-2.

Countering for the Mariners is Chris Young who, while he has an identical
record to Norris at the moment, owns a much better ERA at 3.22. Young, a 10-
year veteran who broke in with the Texas Rangers in 2004, has now gone more
than three weeks since securing his last win.

Most recently he went up against the Los Angeles Angels last weekend and
allowed 10 hits and three runs over six innings during a no-decision. The
right-hander managed to strike out seven and didn't walk a batter, the first
time in more than two months that he has not issued a base-on-balls.

For his career, Young has a record of just 1-1 with a 4.70 ERA in three
previous appearances versus the Orioles.